Voting is brisk in Haywood

Oct. 27—Five days into the one-stop absentee voting process, voter interest is surpassing that of the mid-term elections four years ago.

Reports show that in 2018 there were 5,486 individuals who had voted in just five days at the three one-stop voting sites in the county — Clyde Town Hall, the Canton library and the Haywood County Senior Resources Center. That compares to 5,722 after just five days in the 2022 election.

Haywood County Election Director Robert Inman said the voting process is going extremely well.

"Turnout is very, very strong, and we're a little farther ahead than 2018," he said. "You can't compare mid-term voting to that in a presidential election year."

The voting process is virtually the same as it has been in years past, and is one that is standardized across the state. Inman said one change voters could notice is the presence of poll observers, something that is allowed by law but hasn't been a practice in Haywood until this year.

In response to concerns the election process failed in 2020, the Republican Party has encouraged poll observers nationally and in North Carolina, Inman said. This year, Haywood County GOP Chairwoman Kay Miller has submitted names of party members interested in remaining at the voting places to observe the process.

In an earlier interview, Miller said the party decided appointing poll observers was an allowable way to participate in the election process and was one that hadn't fully been taken advantage of locally in past years.

She said that during the primary election, observers found only a few minor things that were corrected immediately when brought to the attention of poll workers.

For instance, when a voter approaches the poll worker to get a ballot, they are asked to state their name and address, she said, not have a poll worker ask if they still lived at a certain address after learning their name. This didn't happen often, she said.

Inman admitted that may have happened occasionally, but wasn't the norm.

"Precinct officials do the heavy lifting everywhere," Inman said of the voting process. "They are very involved in their community and there have been times when people walk up that they haven't seen in a while and they might ask a question in a way they weren't trained to. For some, this is their first or second time working."

Voting shouldn't be such an antiseptic process that it is dehumanized, he said.

"I wish people would keep their sense of humanity and understanding," he said. "We're fortunate to have the quality of precinct officials we have. They are the finest people I've ever had the good fortune to know."

For the most part, voters have been beyond courteous to the precinct officials, thanking them for their service, he said.

"I've been surprised at how pleasant voters are and how they thank our poll workers for the service they do, and I am grateful to hear that," he said. "The friends and neighbors we serve aren't those angry voices we hear nationally, not those people on the megaphones farther away who are saying things that cause disruptions in the polling place and causing people to not want to participate in the process."

Precinct workers

Inman said it appears there will be plenty of poll workers available for this year's election. On Election Day, a minimum of three precinct officials are needed in each of the 28 voting locations. Many of the poll workers have been handling the task for years, Inman said, and more recently, a number of high school students have stepped up to fill in where needed.

"We're in better shape than we've been in past years," he said.

While the voter registration deadline has passed, those who would like to vote but haven't registered yet can still do so at the three one-stop voting locations, which will be operational until 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5.

Before that, in-person early voting can be done between 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. weekdays at the Senior Resource Center in Waynesville, Clyde Town Hall and the Canton library.